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Well-Known Member

I recently received a copy of conservative Howard Phillips' newsletter reporting that Judge Andrew Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News, had delivered a speech accusing President Bush of imposing "a fascist-Nazi-Soviet style power grab" in America. This was Phillips' way of headlining and summarizing the thrust of Napolitano's remarks at an event sponsored by the libertarian Cato Institute.

Phillips exaggerated the nature and severity of Napolitano’s anti-Bush statements but not by much. Among other things, Napolitano said the Bush-supported anti-terrorist Patriot Act, which passed the Congress in 2001 by votes of 98-1 in the Senate and 356-66 in the House, was “abominable” and “unconstitutional” and “an assault on liberty.” The Cato Institute is strongly opposed to many of Bush’s foreign and domestic policies.

By staking out such a position, Napolitano has, of course, made common cause not only with libertarians but with the ACLU and others on the extreme left. NewsHounds, a website devoted to exposing the alleged conservative bias of Fox News Channel (FNC), has approvingly noted that Napolitano has made similar statements on FNC. When, for example, Napolitano was on John Gibson’s program attacking Bush for his NSA terrorist surveillance program, one of NewsHounds’ left-wing writers commented, “It is not our policy to give Fox employees blue ribbons, but I’ll definitely give the judge a bone.” This is just one of several accolades they have thrown his way. Napolitano is their kind of “conservative.”

But conservatives who believe in winning the war in Iraq and the global war on radical Islam see Napolitano’s anti-Bush rants as more evidence of FNC drifting leftward. The result is apparent in the ratings: FNC has lost viewers compared to last year. “I think many viewers are seeing a trend that they don’t like,” noted one former FNC enthusiast who wrote to me earlier this year. Broadcasting & Cable reports that FNC chief Roger Ailes is upset about the decline and blames “complacency” at the network. It was reported that he believes that bookers are “relying too heavily on the same pool of faces and settling for authors or actors after they’ve already been on CNN or...gasp...MSNBC.”

He said that during last month's street protests in France, the US television network Fox -- owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in which Al-Walid himself has shares -- ran a banner saying: "Muslim riots."
"I picked up the phone and called Murdoch... (and told him) these are not Muslim riots, these are riots out of poverty," he said.
"Within 30 minutes, the title was changed from Muslim riots to civil riots."

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Banned

I recently received a copy of conservative Howard Phillips' newsletter reporting that Judge Andrew Napolitano, Senior Judicial Analyst for Fox News, had delivered a speech accusing President Bush of imposing "a fascist-Nazi-Soviet style power grab" in America. This was Phillips' way of headlining and summarizing the thrust of Napolitano's remarks at an event sponsored by the libertarian Cato Institute.

Phillips exaggerated the nature and severity of Napolitano’s anti-Bush statements but not by much. Among other things, Napolitano said the Bush-supported anti-terrorist Patriot Act, which passed the Congress in 2001 by votes of 98-1 in the Senate and 356-66 in the House, was “abominable” and “unconstitutional” and “an assault on liberty.” The Cato Institute is strongly opposed to many of Bush’s foreign and domestic policies.

By staking out such a position, Napolitano has, of course, made common cause not only with libertarians but with the ACLU and others on the extreme left. NewsHounds, a website devoted to exposing the alleged conservative bias of Fox News Channel (FNC), has approvingly noted that Napolitano has made similar statements on FNC. When, for example, Napolitano was on John Gibson’s program attacking Bush for his NSA terrorist surveillance program, one of NewsHounds’ left-wing writers commented, “It is not our policy to give Fox employees blue ribbons, but I’ll definitely give the judge a bone.” This is just one of several accolades they have thrown his way. Napolitano is their kind of “conservative.”

But conservatives who believe in winning the war in Iraq and the global war on radical Islam see Napolitano’s anti-Bush rants as more evidence of FNC drifting leftward. The result is apparent in the ratings: FNC has lost viewers compared to last year. “I think many viewers are seeing a trend that they don’t like,” noted one former FNC enthusiast who wrote to me earlier this year. Broadcasting & Cable reports that FNC chief Roger Ailes is upset about the decline and blames “complacency” at the network. It was reported that he believes that bookers are “relying too heavily on the same pool of faces and settling for authors or actors after they’ve already been on CNN or...gasp...MSNBC.”

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Thank goodness. They were the most biased news on TV. Maybe now they will report the truth.

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Banned

I conducted a poll ..would you still watch fox news when Murdoch supports Hillary.

and the Saudi connection was brought up a year or so ago...in fact the right wing noise machine is losing numbers...and Praise God for that. Perhaps some honest brokers can now lead this country and bring about
consensus on issues we both agree on...and in doing so MAKE PROGRESS!

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Member

Napolitano is right. The patriot act, like much of what W has done, is an unconstitutional grab of our liberties. I don't recall who it was who said it, but it is so true that, "Those who are willing to sacrifice liberty for protection soon have neither."

Disagreeing with Bush does not put one on the left, in fact, one has to lean a bit that way to support him. That being said, if Fox news is moving left, it is truly unfortunate, but probably to be expected.

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<b>Moderator</b> <img src =/israel.gif>

Moderator

Alan Colmes is a leftist. He is an unashamed liberal. One time I emailed him because he actually said something I agreed with and I told him he might be a closet conservative. He promptly emailed me back in no uncertain terms, "I am a liberal." :laugh:

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Active Member

Disagreeing with Bush does not put one on the left, in fact, one has to lean a bit that way to support him. That being said, if Fox news is moving left, it is truly unfortunate, but probably to be expected.

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A rejection of Bush's methodology isn't necessarily a liberal approach.

Bush is not the standard for conservatism.

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This is true, because as Ken or someone once showed us, the spectrum is not just a line of "left" and "right", but also "authoritarian" and "libertarian". It seems conservatives who lean too far to the authoritarian side nowadays are known as Neo-cons.

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Banned

Alan Colmes is a leftist. He is an unashamed liberal. One time I emailed him because he actually said something I agreed with and I told him he might be a closet conservative. He promptly emailed me back in no uncertain terms, "I am a liberal." :laugh:

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Having a token liberal, of whom I've heard it said is out-weighed by the ampersand, hardly makes that show balanced, let alone the entire roster.

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